HIS HD68xx Graphics Cards

Intro

The AMD HD68-series "Barts" graphic cards have been out on the market for a good
while, so we decided it was time to see what kind of variations of the reference cards
manufacturers have come up with. For this Barts-update we got a few different
HD68-series cards from HIS. Not only do we get to see a couple of custom coolers and
factory-overclocked cards, but also get the chance to try out how well the Barts-cards
work in Crossfire.

All the cards in this test came from HIS, so also the packages look very much alike.
The uniform style is informative, the card version and main features are clearly
visible. On the Turbo-series cards there is a sticker telling the card inside is
overclocked, but it would be nice if the sticker also said the actual clock speeds. The
packaging of the IceQ X card also makes pretty bold claims about the performance of the
new cooler. Inside the boxes the cards are nicely covered in layers of cardboard.

Card table

HIS 6870 Fan Turbo 1 GB

AMD Reference HD6870 1 GB

HIS 6850 Fan 1 GB

HIS 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1 GB

AMD Reference HD6850 1 GB

HIS HD5870 iCooler V Turbo 1 GB

AMD Reference HD5850 1 GB

GPU

6870

6870

6850

6850

6850

5870

5850

Core Clock (MHz)

920

900

775

820

775

875

725

Memory Clock (MHz)

4480

4200

4000

4400

4000

4900

4000

Memory Size (MB)

1024

1024

1024

1024

1024

1024

1024

Memory Type

GDDR5

GDDR5

GDDR5

GDDR5

GDDR5

GDDR5

GDDR5

Memory Interface (bits)

256

256

256

256

256

256

256

Card Length (mm)

262

250

232

235

250

256

241

To clear out what each of the models is all about, here's a table comparing them to
the reference design Barts-cards. Essentially the basic HD6850 is just HIS's version of
the reference design, with a slightly different cooler, but at the same clock speeds.
The 6850 Turbo is an overclocked version with core speed of 820 MHz rather than 775 and
memory speed of 1100 MHz rather than the stock 1000 MHz.

The HIS 6870 is a Turbo-edition, so it has also been factory overclocked. The speeds
have gone up from 900 to 920 MHz on the GPU and 1050 to 1120 MHz on the memory chips.
These upgrades are lower on the 6850, as the 6870 uses the standard cooler rather than
the IceQ X.